Efficient method of combining parity groups for uniform load distribution and maximizing parallelization in parity de-clustered and sliced disk raid architecture

ABSTRACT

Presented herein are methods, non-transitory computer readable media, and devices for maximizing parallelization in a parity de-clustered and sliced disk RAID architecture implemented on at least one hard disk drive by creating at least one allocation group, each created allocation group comprising at least one parity group within a sliced disk group, selecting one of said at least one allocation group, and performing at least one of write or read concurrently on all parity groups within the selected allocation group.

BACKGROUND

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates generally to parallelization in parityde-clustered and sliced disk Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID)architecture. More particularly, aspects of this disclosure relate tomethods, non-transitory computer readable media, and devices forcombining parity groups for uniform load distribution and maximizingparallelization in parity de-clustered and sliced disk RAIDarchitecture.

Description of Related Art

In traditional RAID architecture, the RAID group generally provides (a)fault tolerance against disk failures, ensures that (b) full stripewrites and reads (which involve all disks) utilize all disk spindles andspread the load uniformly in that RAID group.

A parity drive is a hard drive used in RAID technology to provide faulttolerance. Parity is a calculated value which is used for reconstructionof data after a failure. Conventionally, while data is being written toa RAID volume, a calculation for parity is performed by conducting anexclusive OR (XOR) procedure on the data. The calculated parity is thenwritten to the volume. If a portion of the RAID volume fails, the dataon the failed portion can be recreated using the parity information andthe remainder of the data. In parity de-clustered and sliced disk (PDSD)RAID architecture, however, the above two goals ((a) and (b)) cannot beencompassed within a single entity.

First, fault tolerance is provided by a parity group (PG) which is madeup of slices chosen from a subset of disks within the sliced disk group(SDG), a SDG being a collection of disks with similar physicalproperties. Parity groups may share disks with other parity groups, andthus, cannot become independent and completely parallel entities forinputs and outputs (IOs).

Second, the goal of utilizing all available disk spindles in the systemand spreading the load uniformly across the disks can be achievedthrough the sliced disk group, since it is an independent (does notshare the disks with other sliced disk groups) and parallel entity forIOs, provided that uniform use and loading of all the disk spindleswithin the SDG are insured.

In PDSD RAID architecture, each disk is divided into thousands ofslices. Disks with similar properties (like RPM, size, checksum-style,media-type, operating protocol) are grouped to form a SDG. The number ofdisks in a sliced disk group is typically two to five times the numberof disks in a traditional RAID group, achieving better reconstructionthroughput. Parity groups are created from slices chosen from a subsetof disks within the SDG and their layout is governed by parityde-clustering algorithm. A parity group will not span all disks in asliced disk group, so IOs across multiple parity groups are required toutilize all disk spindles of the SDG. At any instance, overall diskutilization and load per disk within the sliced disk group depends onthe subset of parity groups servicing the IOs. Random selection ofparity groups in practice causes uneven disk utilization or uneven loaddistribution and also does not guarantee spanning all disks of a sliceddisk group as disks are shared with multiple parity groups.

Thus, there is a need for a method and an apparatus for combiningmultiple parity groups under a sliced disk group to achieve uniform useand loading of all the disk spindles within the SDG.

SUMMARY

According to an aspect of an exemplary embodiment, a method ofmaximizing parallelization in a parity de-clustered and sliced disk RAIDarchitecture implemented on at least one hard disk drive, using at leastone processor, includes creating, using at least one of said at leastone processor, at least one allocation group, each created allocationgroup comprising at least one parity group within a sliced disk group,selecting, using at least one of said at least one processor, one ofsaid at least one allocation group, and performing, using at least oneof said at least one processor, at least one of write or readconcurrently on all parity groups within the selected allocation group,where each of the at least one parity group comprises slices chosen froma subset of disks within the sliced disk group.

According to another exemplary embodiment, the sliced disk groupcomprises disks from the at least one hard disk drive incorporatingsimilar properties, the similar properties comprises at least one ofRPM, size, checksum-style, media-type and operating protocol, and theselecting further includes selecting the one of said at least oneallocation group based on similarity of the physical properties of theat least one parity group.

According to another exemplary embodiment, the selecting furthercomprises selecting the one of said at least one allocation group basedon the available space in the sliced disk group.

According to another exemplary embodiment, the creating further includesdetermining, using at least one of said at least one processor, if sizeof the sliced disk group is an integral multiple of size of the paritygroup, deriving, using at least one of said at least one processor,“SDG_rows_per_AG” value based on the determination, and associating,using at least one of said at least one processor, each of the at leastone allocation group for all parity groups in the sliced disk groupbased on the derived “SDG_rows_per_AG” value.

According to another exemplary embodiment, if the determination ispositive, the “SDG_rows_per_AG” value is set to 1.

According to another exemplary embodiment, if the determination isnegative, the “SDG_rows_per_AG” value is set using the formula:SDG_rows_per_AG=LCM (SDG-size % PG-width, PG_width)/(SDG-size %PG-width).

According to another aspect of an exemplary embodiment, a non-transitorymachine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions forperforming a method comprising machine executable code which whenexecuted by at least one processor, causes the processor to create atleast one allocation group, each created allocation group comprising atleast one parity group within a sliced disk group, select one of said atleast one allocation group, and perform at least one of write or readconcurrently on all parity groups within the selected allocation group,where each of the at least one parity group comprises slices chosen froma subset of disks within the sliced disk group.

According to another exemplary embodiment, the machine executable codefurther causes the machine to select the one of said at least oneallocation group based on similarity of the physical properties of theat least one parity group, where the sliced disk group comprises disksfrom at least one hard disk drive incorporating similar properties, andthe similar properties comprises at least one of RPM, size,checksum-style, media-type and operating protocol.

According to another exemplary embodiment, the machine executable codefurther causes the machine to select the one of said at least oneallocation group based on the available space in the sliced disk group.

According to another exemplary embodiment, the machine executable codecauses the machine to create the at least one allocation group byfurther causing the machine to determine if size of the sliced diskgroup is an integral multiple of size of the parity group, derive“SDG_rows_per_AG” value based on the determination, and associate eachof the at least one allocation group for all parity groups in the sliceddisk group based on the derived “SDG_rows_per_AG” value.

According to another exemplary embodiment, if the determination ispositive, the “SDG_rows_per_AG” value is set to 1.

According to another exemplary embodiment, if the determination isnegative, the “SDG_rows_per_AG” value is set using the formula:SDG_rows_per_AG=LCM (SDG-size % PG-width, PG_width)/(SDG-size %PG-width).

According to another aspect of an exemplary embodiment, a computingdevice includes a memory comprising machine executable code forperforming a method of maximizing parallelization in a parityde-clustered and sliced disk RAID architecture implemented on the atleast one hard disk drive, a processor coupled to the memory, theprocessor configured to execute the machine executable code to cause theprocessor to execute the machine executable code to cause the processorto create at least one allocation group, each created allocation groupcomprising at least one parity group within a sliced disk group, selectone of said at least one allocation group, and perform at least one ofwrite or read concurrently on all parity groups within the selectedallocation group, where the sliced disk group comprises disks from theat least one hard disk drive incorporating similar properties, and eachof the at least one parity group comprises slices chosen from a subsetof disks within the sliced disk group.

According to another exemplary embodiment, the machine executable codefurther causes the processor to select the one of said at least oneallocation group based on similarity of the physical properties of theat least one parity group, where the sliced disk group comprises disksfrom at least one hard disk drive incorporating similar properties, andthe similar properties comprises at least one of RPM, size,checksum-style, media-type and operating protocol.

According to another exemplary embodiment, the machine executable codefurther causes the processor to select the one of said at least oneallocation group based on the available space in the sliced disk group.

According to another exemplary embodiment, the machine executable codecauses the processor to create the at least one allocation group byfurther causing the processor to determine if size of the sliced diskgroup is an integral multiple of size of the parity group, derive“SDG_rows_per_AG” value based on the determination, and associate eachof the at least one allocation group for all parity groups in the sliceddisk group based on the derived “SDG_rows_per_AG” value.

According to another exemplary embodiment, if the determination ispositive, the “SDG_rows_per_AG” value is set to 1.

According to another exemplary embodiment, if the determination isnegative, the “SDG_rows_per_AG” value is set using the formula:SDG_rows_per_AG=LCM (SDG-size % PG-width, PG_width)/(SDG-size %PG-width).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts a parity group layout in a sliced disk group, accordingto an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 2 depicts organization of flexible aggregate, according to anexemplary embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart depicting the allocation group creation process.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart depicting the association of AG for all the PGs inthe SDG.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart depicting recreation of allocation groups afteraddition of a disk to a sliced disc group.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart depicting write allocation using allocationgroups.

FIG. 7 depicts an uneven layout of parity groups, according to anexemplary embodiment.

FIG. 8 depicts a block diagram of an example of a system comprising astorage server, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 9 depicts a block diagram illustrating examples of multiple domainswithin an exemplary embodiment of a storage server.

The present disclosure is susceptible to various modifications andalternative forms, and some representative embodiments have been shownby way of example in the drawings and will be described in detailherein. It should be understood, however, that the inventive aspects arenot limited to the particular forms illustrated in the drawings. Rather,the disclosure is to cover all modifications, equivalents, andalternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the disclosure asdefined by the appended claims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure is directed to methods, non-transitory computerreadable media, and devices for combining parity groups for uniform loaddistribution and maximizing parallelization in parity de-clustered andsliced disk RAID architecture.

Embodiments will be described below in more detail with reference to theaccompanying drawings. The following detailed descriptions are providedto assist the reader in gaining a comprehensive understanding of themethods, apparatuses, and/or systems described herein and equivalentmodifications thereof. Accordingly, various changes, modifications, andequivalents of the methods, apparatuses, and/or systems described hereinwill be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. Moreover,descriptions of well-known functions and constructions may be omittedfor increased clarity and conciseness.

The terms used in the description are intended to describe embodimentsonly, and shall by no means be restrictive. Unless clearly usedotherwise, expressions in a singular from include a meaning of a pluralform. In the present description, an expression such as “comprising” or“including” is intended to designate a characteristic, a number, a step,an operation, an element, a part or combinations thereof, and shall notbe construed to preclude any presence or possibility of one or moreother characteristics, numbers, steps, operations, elements, parts orcombinations thereof.

It will be understood to those skilled in the art that the disclosuredescribed herein may apply to any type of special-purpose (e.g., fileserver, filer or storage serving appliance) or general-purpose computer,including a standalone computer or portion thereof (i.e. a workload),embodied as or including a storage system. Moreover, the teachings ofthis disclosure can be adapted to a variety of storage systemarchitectures including, but not limited to, a network-attached storageenvironment, a storage area network, a disk assembly directly-attachedto a client or host computer and, illustratively, a cluster ofinterconnected storage system nodes. The term “storage system” shouldtherefore be taken broadly to include such arrangements in addition toany subsystems configured to perform a storage function and associatedwith other equipment or systems. Furthermore, flash disk arrays are alsocontemplated as a form of storage to which the concepts described belowapply.

Referring now to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer tolike features throughout the several views, there is shown in FIG. 1, aparity group layout in a sliced disk group.

FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of a collection of RAID disks inwhich each column represents a disk, and each row represents a sliceacross one or more disks. The numbers in the individual cells representthe parity group to which a particular slice of a disk belongs.

Representing the above discussed problem using the non-limitingexemplary embodiment depicted in FIG. 1, choosing parity group 1 (PG1,covering disks from columns 1-14) and parity group 3 (PG3, coveringdisks from columns 1-7 and columns 15-21) for a write operation resultsin leaving disks from columns 22 to 28 unutilized in the writeoperation. Moreover, disks from column 1 to 7 receive double the load,as both PG 1 and PG3 cover disks from columns 1 to 7, compared to therest of the utilized disks which are covered by only one parity group,in turn making disks from column 1 to 7 a bottleneck for the completionof the write operation.

A solution to the above described problem can be achieved using alogical entity called an allocation group (AG), which is a collection ofparity groups within a sliced disk group, where the sliced disk group isa collection of disks from a hard disk drive incorporating similarproperties and a parity group is a collection of slices chosen from asubset of disks within the sliced disk group.

A write or read operation performed concurrently on all parity groupswithin an allocation group ensures maximum parallelization and even loaddistribution on all disks within the sliced disk group. Additionally, anAG aids in targeting concurrent IOs to the parity groups which havesimilar physical properties (e.g. their disk blocks are from the samedisk diameter zone).

FIG. 2 depicts organization of a flexible aggregate, a flexibleaggregate being a logical container of data blocks which is furtheraccessed by the file system.

In PDSD RAID architecture which implements the above describedallocation groups, allocation group objects are placed under a sliceddisk group and act as containers for parity groups. A flexible aggregatemay be provisioned by choosing allocation groups from multiple sliceddisk groups.

As depicted in FIG. 2, allocation group 1 under flexible aggregate 1includes PG 1 and PG2, which is placed under SDG1, according to anexemplary embodiment. Furthermore, flexible aggregate 1 comprisesallocation groups spanning parity groups 1-6 and 13-18, placed underSDG1 and SDG2, according to the depicted exemplary embodiment.Similarly, flexible aggregate 2 comprises allocation groups whichin-turn comprise parity groups 7-12 and 19-24 placed under SDG1 andSDG2, according to the depicted exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 2 further depicts the on-disk physical layout of SDG1 and SDG2incorporating PG1-12 and PG13-24 respectively.

Different types of flexible aggregate IOs can span across all the diskspindles and load the disks uniformly using the allocation group in thefollowing ways.

During the issuance of a write command, it is advantageous to choose adisk block such that a high write throughput and a good read throughputon subsequent reads is ensured. Using the RAID topology, an exemplaryembodiment of which is depicted in FIG. 2, a write allocator, whichallocates writes among different parity groups, can choose the bestallocation group, at the moment when the write command is issued, fromeach SDG of a flexible aggregate, based on certain parameters such asthe number of free blocks in an allocation group. The write allocatorcan then allocate writes to all parity groups in the selected allocationgroup. Using such an allocation, write performance is more predictableand efficient since there is utilization of all disk spindles and theload is spread uniformly across all disks in sliced disk group. Theabove described concept of loading the disks uniformly using allocationgroups will now be described using the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 2.

Based on the embodiment of FIG. 2, let us assume that upon receiving awrite command, the write allocator determines that AG3 under flexibleaggregate 1 is the best candidate based on the number of free blocksavailable. Based on this determination, the write allocator allocateswrites to all parity groups in the determined AG3, i.e. PG5 and PG6.Looking at FIG. 1, we notice that PG5 encompasses disks from column 1-7and 22-28 whereas PG6 encompasses disks from column 8-21. Thus, usingthe above allocation technique, all disks from column 1-28 are utilizedthereby allowing a uniform spread of load across all disks in sliceddisk group and in turn leading to a write performance which is morepredictable and efficient.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart depicting the allocation group creation process.

The process of creating allocation groups incorporates input of a sliceddisk group which contains an array of parity groups which belongs to agiven flexible aggregate, and output of an allocation group list whichcontains all the allocation groups for the SDG, the list of allocationgroups for the SDG being created by associating every parity group withan allocation group.

Specifically, the allocation group creation process starts with derivingan SDG_rows_per_AG value. Slices are at same offset on each of the diskcontained in a SDG forms one SDG-row. Write/read operation on a completeSDG-row will achieve uniform load distribution or uniform disk spindleutilization and maximum parallelization. Thus, an AG should try to spanone or more SDG-rows in its entirety. At the same time AG should haveintegral number of PGs to avoid multiple parity computations.

Thus, to calculate the SDG_rows_per_AG value, first it is determined, instep 301, if SDG-size, which is the number of disks in the SDG, is anintegral multiple of PG-width, which is the number of slices in a paritygroup. If an affirmative determination is achieved, then theSDG_rows_per_AG value is set to 1 in step 302. If, however, it isdetermined that the SDG-size is not an integral multiple of PG-width,then more than one SDG-row will be included in an AG to achieve evenload distribution. The SDG_rows_per_AG value, in such a scenario, iscalculated in step 303 using the following formula:

SDG_rows_per_AG=LCM (SDG-size % PG-width, PG_width)/(SDG-size %PG-width).

Following the above calculation of the SDG_rows_per_AG value, in step304, we associate AG for all the PGs in the SDG based on the calculatedSDG_rows_per_AG value, in-turn having one allocation group per ‘x’ rowswhere ‘x’ is equal to the calculated SDG_rows_per_AG value.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart depicting the association of AG for all the PGs inthe SDG.

As shown in FIG. 4, steps 401-403, an SDG-row-number for a PG isdetermined. It is also possible that a PG is distributed in more thanone SDG-row, as per a de-clustering requirement. Thus, in step 401, itis determined if a PG spans more than 1 row. If it does not, theSDG-row-number is determined, in step 402, to be the SDG-row where thePG spans. If, however, the PG spans more than 1 row, it is determined,in step 403, if there is equal distribution of PG slices in multiplerows. If so, the lowest row number where the PG spans is determined asthe SDG-row-number in step 404. If however, the distribution of PGslices is not equal, the SDG-row where most of the PG slices areresiding is determined to be the SDG-row-number, in step 405. Followingthis, the PG is associated with the allocation group which representsthe determined SDG-row-number of the PG in step 406.

Thus, based on the above described steps depicted in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4,the allocation groups are created and associated.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart depicting recreation of allocation groups afteraddition of a disk to a sliced disc group.

In step 501, rebalancing of slices to the newly added disk takes place.After the slices are rebalanced, the current AG list in the SDG isdiscarded in step 502. Following that, the AG creation process describedin FIGS. 3 and 4 is performed again in step 503 to recreate the AG basedon the rebalanced slices.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart depicting write allocation using allocationgroups.

The process starts with a first SDG in flexible aggregate in step 601.In step 602, an AG is determined with the best available space in theselected SDG following which write allocation is performed to all thePGs in the determined AG in step 603. The above described steps are thenrepeated for all the SDGs in the flexible aggregate.

Allocation groups can also be used to schedule RAID operations likeParity Scrub which reads all slices in a PG and computes parity andcompares it with parity slices, reports and fixes the parityinconsistencies if any. Associating this operation to run on allocationgroup basis, uniform disk utilization and maximum parallelization forread IOs can be achieved. This also helps in throttling the backgroundoperation by limiting the allocation groups participating in the scruband limiting its impact on foreground IOs.

The approach of scheduling the operation on per allocation group basismay also be applicable for segment cleaning or defragmentationoperations which clears fragmentation to create contiguous large freespace in file system so that future writes will be efficient (i.e. tohave full stripe write in future which doesn't involve additional readsor XOR computation) and large contiguous free space which can be trackedwith less metadata in file system. Segment cleaning can make use ofallocation group to clean all parity groups of an allocation groupsimultaneously and keep fragmentation level uniform across all paritygroups so that future writes for this allocation group will achieveuniform disk utilization and maximizes the parallelization.

Allocation groups can also be used to achieve Quality of Service (QoS)within RAID layer. Priorities can be given to Allocation group for abovedescribed operations (Parity scrub, File system write allocation, andFile system defragmentation) based on their QoS.

IO throughput can also be provisioned using Allocation groups. FIG. 7depicts an uneven layout of parity groups. Allocation Groups carved fromouter diameter of disks in sliced disk group will have better read/writeperformance compared to middle diameter, and middle diameter is bettercompared to inner diameter. For example, flexible aggregate requiringhigher JO throughput can be carved from Allocation Groups formed fromouter diameter of disks.

FIG. 8 depicts a block diagram of an example of a system 800, inaccordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Thesystem 800 includes clients 802 and 804 and storage server 824. Theclients, 802 and 804, may be computers or other processing systemscapable of accessing the storage server 824 either directly orindirectly over a network 814. The clients, 802 and 804, may access thestorage server 824 over the network 814 using wireless or wiredconnections supporting one or more point-to-point links, shared localarea networks (LAN), wide area networks (WAN), or other accesstechnologies. These clients 802 and 804 may be accessing data,applications, raw storage, or various combinations thereof stored on thestorage server 824.

According to the exemplary embodiment depicted in FIG. 8, the system 800is a type of storage system that provides storage services to clients802 and 804 using, for example, storage area network (SAN),network-attached storage (NAS), or other storage technologies processedon multiple processors 818. However, it should be appreciated thatalternate embodiments of the multiprocessor system 800 may deliver othertypes of computer services on a multiprocessor platform. For example,the storage server 824 may include web server technologies that deliverweb pages and web services to the clients, 802 and 804, over theInternet. In other embodiments, the storage server 824 may include othergeneral purpose applications that can deliver various functionalities ordata to the clients, 802 and 804.

The storage server 824 is configured to operate according to aclient/server model of information delivery thereby allowing multipleclients to access files or other data simultaneously. In this model, theclient 802 or 804 may be a computer running an application, such as afile-system protocol. Each client, 802 and 804, may request the servicesof the storage server 824 by issuing storage-system protocol messages.For example, the clients, 802 and 804, can request to either read datafrom or write data to the storage server 824.

In the exemplary embodiment depicted in FIG. 8, the storage server 824is a file-level server, such as a server used in a NAS environment, ablock-level storage server used in a SAN environment, or other storagesystems capable of providing both file-level and block-level service.For example, the storage server 824 may use a combination of softwareand hardware to provide storage services including the organization ofinformation on storage devices 828 and 830, such as disks. The storageserver 824 includes a file system to organize logically the informationas a hierarchical or other structure of directories and files on thedisks 828 and 830.

Although the storage server 824 is illustrated as a single unit in FIG.8, it can also be implemented in a distributed architecture. Forexample, the storage server 824 can be implemented with multipledistributed storage servers (not shown). Additionally, the storageserver 824 can also include a physically separate network module anddisk module (not shown), which communicate with other storage serversover an external interconnect. The network module functions as afront-end of the storage server 824, exporting services to the clients,802 and 804. The disk module functions as the back-end, managing andimplementing a parity de-clustered distribution of a RAID organizationon the underlying storage of the storage server 824.

In a system 800, the storage server 824 uses two or more processors, asrepresented by processors 818, which may also include multiple coreprocessor designs. The processors 818 represent two or morecomputational units available in the storage server 824, may be aphysical aggregation of multiple individual processors that eachindividually execute threads. Alternate implementations of processors818 may be a single processor having multiple on-chip cores that maypartition and share certain resources on the processor die such as theL1/L2 cache. Therefore, the term “processor,” as used herein, could beapplied to designs utilizing one core or multiple cores found on asingle chip or die. Likewise, thread execution is used to describe theact of executing a set of related instructions on one or severalprocessors. As used herein, a “thread” refers to a separate stream ofexecution that takes place simultaneously with and independently ofother steams of execution. As an example, a thread can be a singlesequence of instructions executed in parallel with other sequence ofinstructions, either by time slicing or multiprocessing. This allows aprogram to split itself into two or more simultaneously running tasks.Unlike processes, multiple threads can share state information of asingle process, share memory, and other resources directly.

In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, the storageserver 824 can be configured to adjust a number of threads for executionby the processors 818 based on monitoring utilizations of multipledomains. FIG. 9 depicts a block diagram illustrating examples ofmultiple domains, consistent with an embodiment. It should beappreciated that threads to be executed are divided into a set ofdomains according to their functionality and tasks they perform.Therefore, a “domain,” as used herein, refers to a grouping of threadsbased on a common functionality. Accordingly, threads are scheduledaccording to their assigned domain, which allow for multiprocessorparallel execution, in accordance with an embodiment of the presentdisclosure. For example, as depicted in the exemplary embodiment of FIG.9, a storage server may implement multiprocessing using the followingset of domains: a network domain 902, file system domain 904, a RAIDdomain 906, and a storage domain 908. As implied by their names, thenetwork domain 902 includes threads related to performing networkspecific functions. The file system domain 904 includes threads relatedto file system functions. The RAID domain 906 includes threads dealingwith implementing the RAID functions and different levels of RAID (e.g.,RAID-0 through RAID-5). The storage domain 908 includes threads directlyrelated to operating storage devices.

The present disclosure is not limited to the precise construction andcompositions disclosed herein; any and all modifications, changes, andvariations apparent from the foregoing descriptions are within thespirit and scope of the disclosure as defined in the appended claims.Moreover, the present concepts expressly include any and allcombinations and sub combinations of the preceding elements and aspects.An implementation of an apparatus that falls within the inventiveconcept does not necessarily achieve any of the possible benefitsoutlined above: such benefits are dependent on the specific use case andspecific implementation, and the possible benefits mentioned above aresimply examples.

Although the concepts have been described above with respect to thevarious embodiments, it is noted that there can be a variety ofpermutations and modifications of the described features by those whoare familiar with this field, only some of which have been presentedabove, without departing from the technical ideas and scope of thefeatures, which is defined by the appended claims.

Further, while this specification contains many features, the featuresshould not be construed as limitations on the scope of the disclosure orthe appended claims. Certain features described in the context ofseparate embodiments can also be implemented in combination. Conversely,various features described in the context of a single embodiment canalso be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in anysuitable sub-combination.

Although the drawings describe operations in a specific order and/orshow specific arrangements of components, and are described in thecontext of access segments of data centers, one should not interpretthat such specific order and/or arrangements are limited, or that allthe operations performed and the components disclosed are needed toobtain a desired result. There are numerous hardware and softwaredevices that can be configured to forward data units in the mannerdescribed in the present disclosure with respect to various embodiments.Accordingly, other implementations are within the scope of the followingclaims.

What is claimed:
 1. A method for maximizing parallelization in a parityde-clustered and sliced disk RAID architecture implemented on at leastone hard disk drive, using at least one processor, the methodcomprising: creating, using the at least one processor, at least oneallocation group, each created allocation group comprising a at leastone parity group within a sliced disk group; selecting, using the atleast one processor, one of said at least one created allocation group;and performing, using the at least one processor, at least one of writeor read concurrently on all parity groups within the selected allocationgroup, wherein each of the at least one parity group comprises sliceschosen from a subset of disks within the sliced disk group.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the sliced disk group comprises disks fromthe at least one hard disk drive incorporating similar properties, thesimilar properties comprises at least one of RPM, size, checksum-style,media-type and operating protocol, and the selecting is based onsimilarity of the physical properties of the at least one parity group.3. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting is based on theavailable space in the sliced disk group.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein the creating further comprises: determining, using at least oneof said at least one processor, if size of the sliced disk group is anintegral multiple of size of the parity group; deriving, using the atleast one processor, “SDG_rows_per_AG” value based on the determination;and associating, using the at least one processor, each of the at leastone allocation group for all parity groups in the sliced disk groupbased on the derived “SDG_rows_per_AG” value.
 5. The method of claim 4,wherein if the determination is positive, the “SDG_rows_per_AG” value isset to
 1. 6. The method of claim 4, wherein if the determination isnegative, the “SDG_rows_per_AG” value is set using the formula:SDG_rows_per_AG=LCM (SDG-size % PG-width, PG_width)/(SDG-size %PG-width).
 7. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having storedthereon instructions for performing a method which when executed by atleast one processor, causes the processor to: create at least oneallocation group, each created allocation group comprising at least oneparity group within a sliced disk group; select one of said at least oneallocation group; and perform at least one of write or read concurrentlyon all parity groups within the selected allocation group, wherein eachof the at least one parity group comprises slices chosen from a subsetof disks within the sliced disk group.
 8. The non-transitory machinereadable medium of claim 7, wherein the machine executable code furthercauses the machine to select the one of said at least one allocationgroup based on similarity of the physical properties of the at least oneparity group, wherein the sliced disk group comprises disks from atleast one hard disk drive incorporating similar properties, and thesimilar properties comprises at least one of RPM, size, checksum-style,media-type and operating protocol.
 9. The non-transitory machinereadable medium of claim 7, wherein the machine executable code furthercauses the machine to select the one of said at least one allocationgroup based on the available space in the sliced disk group.
 10. Thenon-transitory machine readable medium of claim 7, wherein the machineexecutable code causes the machine to create the at least one allocationgroup by further causing the machine to: determine if size of the sliceddisk group is an integral multiple of size of the parity group; derive“SDG_rows_per_AG” value based on the determination; and associate eachof the at least one allocation group for all parity groups in the sliceddisk group based on the derived “SDG_rows_per_AG” value.
 11. Thenon-transitory machine readable medium of claim 10, wherein if thedetermination is positive, the “SDG_rows_per_AG” value is set to
 1. 12.The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 10, wherein if thedetermination is negative, the “SDG_rows_per_AG” value is set using theformula:SDG_rows_per_AG=LCM (SDG-size % PG-width, PG_width)/(SDG-size %PG-width).
 13. A computing device, comprising: a memory comprisingmachine executable code for performing a method of maximizingparallelization in a parity de-clustered and sliced disk RAIDarchitecture implemented on the at least one hard disk drive; aprocessor coupled to the memory, the processor configured to execute themachine executable code to cause the processor to: create at least oneallocation group, each created allocation group comprising at least oneparity group within a sliced disk group; select one of said at least oneallocation group; and perform at least one of write or read concurrentlyon all parity groups within the selected allocation group, wherein eachof the at least one parity group comprises slices chosen from a subsetof disks within the sliced disk group.
 14. The computer device of claim13, wherein the machine executable code further causes the processor toselect the one of said at least one allocation group based on similarityof the physical properties of the at least one parity group, wherein thesliced disk group comprises disks from at least one hard disk driveincorporating similar properties, and the similar properties comprisesat least one of RPM, size, checksum-style, media-type and operatingprotocol.
 15. The computer device of claim 13, wherein the machineexecutable code further causes the processor to select the one of saidat least one allocation group based on the available space in the sliceddisk group.
 16. The computer device of claim 13, wherein the machineexecutable code causes the processor to create the at least oneallocation group by further causing the processor to: determine if sizeof the sliced disk group is an integral multiple of size of the paritygroup; derive “SDG_rows_per_AG” value based on the determination; andassociate each of the at least one allocation group for all paritygroups in the sliced disk group based on the derived “SDG_rows_per_AG”value.
 17. The computer device of claim 16, wherein if the determinationis positive, the “SDG_rows_per_AG” value is set to
 1. 18. The computerdevice of claim 16, wherein if the determination is negative, the“SDG_rows_per_AG” value is set using the formula:SDG_rows_per_AG=LCM (SDG-size % PG-width, PG_width)/(SDG-size %PG-width).